samjulien {finance+tech+socialjustice}

Hi, I'm Sam. I like to help people with money, web 2.0, and social justice awareness. I have a dream of using the social media space to help people in both little ways (wheelchair ramps down the road) and big ways (ending human trafficking). Here you can read, watch, and listen to my thoughts on all three.
Posts tagged mortgage

Bizarro Investing (Or, How to Calculate Debt)

Bizarro is that reverse Superman villain.  He is the exact opposite of everything Superman represents.

Let’s review the principles from the last post:

1. Money is never stagnant (it’s always moving, growing, or shrinking).

2. Money earns money on money (the power of compound interest).

3. More time = more money (exponentially so!).

Using credit cards is Bizarro Investing.  Rather than the power of compound interest working for you, it works against you in the exact same way.  If you put $5000 on a credit card, even at 10% interest, it’s going to cost you quite a bit more than that.  If you never touched that debt again, it would be up to around $8000.  If you decided you want to pay it off in 5 years at $100/month, you’d end up paying about $6500 - that’s $1500 in interest.

Want to know the true cost of your credit?  There are some tools to help.  Here’s a little calculator for you. 

Want to know a secret?  A credit calculator is the same as a mortgage calculator.  Just think of debts as little mortgages.  Go ahead, put the same numbers in the credit calculator and this mortgage calculator to see.

That’s all for now.  You can also watch my video about debt to hear more.

Yours,

Sam

P.S. As I say in the video, I don’t pass on any of this information to be judgmental.  We’ve all been there — I just to want to help!

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